Saying it with chocolate

Happy Valentine's Day

A marzipan heart

Lots of hearts and some swirly spheres

All tied up with ribbons and bows

How did you say it?

(or didn't you say it..?)

Mostly making

Chocolates!
It's so important to do what you enjoy in life and to enjoy what you do, isn't it?  How lucky am I that I am teaching and enjoying it - and enjoying making chocolates in the evenings when I get home?
It doesn't leave much time for blogging though, which is a shame because I also enjoy that. So many things to enjoy, so little time....

I'm not the most organised of people on the outside. On the inside, of course, I usually know exactly what has to be done, how long it will take, when I intend to do it, where it is...part of an ENFP personality though, is that if something more interesting or exciting comes along, all the best laid internal plans can be dropped without too much concern. Unless that means I can't make my chocolates.

Because I like doing things I enjoy, I have to do some things I don't. No matter how hard I try, I do not enjoy cleaning; dust can gather, clutter clumps together and my eyes glaze over and my brain refuses to fret - I don't use avoidance tactics, I often don't register things that others cannot live with. (It's a gift, I think.)
However, my kitchen must be spotless for me to make my chocolates...so it's getting more attention these days. I see specks of dust and drops of water that could spell disaster to my creations.

Not to show you my immaculate kitchen, but to share with you some of my small scale production processes, I stopped last night a couple of times during my chocolatiering to capture a bit of what it's like to make chocolates on the kitchen table.

Moulds pre-prepared with a coating of 'ruby' chocolate. Palette knife at the ready and a covered pot of cherries in liquer.

Orange centres ready for dipping - at the other side of the table. Two different chocolates from the same 'batch' of tempered dark chocolate.

No one said it wasn't messy. Moulds part-filled, ready for the centre to be added. 

Jackson Pollock eat your heart out! Edible art.

Dipped orange Belgian truffles. Turned out nice.
The two really big ones, second row in on the right ended up as 'testers'

Cherry marbles as Romy named them.

Close up of the effect of the 'ruby' coating. I love this stuff! It is a white chocolate with edible colouring which gives a slightly metallic effect. With the dark chocolate behind it, this makes an overall dark plummy, purply colour which I find stunning. Each one is different and I am always so excited to turn them out and choose my favourite.

Milk chocolate truffles with a Christmassy flavour - orange, spices, cherries, ginger and a splash of cognac.

And here they are with their little cap of saucy topping. Takes an age to do but I think they're rather sweet.

Glamour shot of my chocolate orange truffles.
Posers!

Now. What shall I make today? Coffee truffles are calling....

Taylor Made Chocolates - nearly

Well, I have ordered chocolate. Not my usual big order but big enough. Within the next week or so, I should have just over 12kg Belgian chocolate in milk, dark and white to start making some of my favourite things.

I am getting extraordinarily excited about it.









I shall make some of these using crystallised oranges bought from Rute - a small town in Cordoba famous for  its foodstuffs, and in particular, its use of 'anis' (aniseed). It also makes the liqueur called 'Orujo' and one of the biscuit companies based there is home to the famous Christmas Nativity scene, or 'Belen' that we visited last year. I am thinking of making some orujo truffles - these will not be for the faint-hearted...

I shall also be making some of these: Christmas truffles, caramel snails and lemon and ginger truffles...

 And hope to end up with some of these: more snails (I like my snails), strawberry cream truffles in white and rich rum truffles in dark chocolate.

Rocky Road is a simple recipe using melted chocolate, crushed biscuits, marshmallows, pistachios, cherries, sultanas...and anything else you fancy throwing in. Sprinkle with icing sugar - and try not to eat it all at once!

Or try something really simple like deliciously creamy Belgian milk chocolate studded with hazelnuts.

And for Christmas, I can't resist making these Christmas trees - as lollies or as tree decorations.

And maybe I'll make a few more of these taste-blasters. Chilli and coconut. Not to everyone's taste, I agree, but if they do fancy one, you'll be back for more. They are quite addictive!

Hurry up, delivery van...let me get my hands on all that lovely chocolate!!

The call of chocolate

Well, we've been here for almost two years and in that time, I've made lots and lots of things - jams, sauces, chutneys - but very few chocolates.  I am feeling rather frustrated about this, even though it's the height of summer and I would be unlikely to be making chocolates in the UK at this time of year. (Too much rain...chocolate is no friend of humidity!)

I am thinking very seriously about the possibility of setting up in a little shop here in Alcala la Real. It's a busy, bustling town and whilst there is nothing up-market about it, I feel sure there is enough footfall on the streets to encourage a few folk into a shop that offers unique, delicious and well-priced chocolates. Does this sound enough like a marketing strategy to proceed? 

Anyway, I'm going all chocolatey and need to post a few more photos of 'some I made earlier'. 

Easter 2009 and I went all 'SPLATTY'.  My 'SPLATTY' eggs were milk, white or dark chocolate hollow eggs which I filled with a range of different centres, then closed up with a SPLAT of contrasting chocolate. 

They went down a storm. I include here the fillings I made - perhaps you could give me ideas of what you would like inside your SPLATTY egg!

Apricot Splatties – a white chocolate ganache (double cream and white chocolate) mixed with apricot preserve and brandy, piped into a hollow egg and decorated with a SPLAT and a sprinkling of nuts. White or dark eggs

Raspberry Splatties – a white chocolate ganache mixed with raspberry preserve (no pips!) and raspberry liqueur, piped into hollow eggs and decorated with a SPLAT and a dusting of freeze-dried raspberries – White or dark eggs

Orange Splatties – (my personal favourite) 

a white ganache, with zest of orange, mixed peel and cointreau, piped into hollow eggs and decorated with a SPLAT and a teeny piece of orange peel. Dark eggs 

Shown here with cherry liqueur hearts.

Rum Splatties – a dark ganache with rum and the occasional tipsy raisin, piped into milk and dark hollow eggs, decorated with a contrasting SPLAT!

Caramel Splatties – dulce de leche caramel piped into hollow milk and white eggs and decorated with a contrasting SPLAT. 

Shown here with caramel snails...

I also made: 

Lemon and ginger truffles - a dark ganache with lemon oil, lemon zest and hot spicy crystallised ginger pieces - dipped in white chocolate and finished with a gold transfer pattern.

Honey truffles - a rich milk chocolate ganache with natural honey, hand- dipped in milk chocolate.

Chilli taste bombs! A dark ganache with a sprinkling of chilli flakes, hand dipped in dark chocolate and finished off with a fantastic transfer that indicates the explosion of flavour about to hit you!







The following pictures were taken at a craft fair I did at the National Mining Museum in Wakefield in 2009 where I sold a lot of hand made Easter Eggs and my lovely moulded chocolate bunnies - the moulds I got from my grandpa that hark back to the 1950s. I can't wait to get started again.

  

OK - it's not the same as making them but I've enjoyed digging out these old photos.

One day..one day soon.

Go Faster Stripes

One of my favourite bloggers was doing some important musing and wondering recently. She was particularly intrigued by how Alice's chocolate had achieved its stripe. I was almost overcome with excitement - because I KNEW.

Yes, I know how the stripe was placed so elegantly in Alice's chocolate. And this post is to demonstrate to MPM (and anyone else who may be preoccupied by the problem) how it's done. Albeit in a rather rough and ready version...

First off - prepare your chocolate making equipment - including here, white and milk chocolate (all I had in) and some chocolate moulds. (Yes, they are dinosaurs!)

Without going into the details (because this isn't a chocolate tempering workshop) melt the chocolate in preparation for putting into the moulds.

And then here is the clever bit - unfortunately I was unable to capture the actual moment as I was without a photographer and my hands were occupied. To get a perfect stripe, one should use a piping bag but I couldn't be bothered. I just dribbled a thin stream of chocolate directly from the spoon into the mould; allowing the chocolate to make a line in each individual mould. (Apologies for the photography.)

Allow this chocolate to set in the mould before filling with the white chocolate. And then wait til this sets too.

Et voila! One 'inset' stripe. And I confess, it's not elegantly placed - it would have looked better offset to the left as you look at it and with a little bit of pink or red chocolate in the indentation and if time had been on my side, I would probably have made these with a truffle centre, rather than solid. But you get the idea...?

Random dribbling! And a fair bit of blobbing.
Hope this unprofessional guide explains it for you, MPM. And anyone else struggling with the same anxieties.

And I hope she doesn't mind if I pinch one of her comments I read on her blog - 'Pass me another atom, this one's split!' Love it!

Missing Chocolate

Until Wednesday, I hadn't even thought about it. When the sun is hot and the skies are blue, I don't think about chocolate - it's the wrong season, it doesn't work, you can't do it, not unless you have an air-conditioned kitchen which I've never had - so I hadn't missed it.  I don't eat much chocolate usually. I like it but it has to be really good stuff to tempt me and I haven't seen any since we were in the Alpujarras.

So no - until Wednesday, I wasn't missing my chocolate.

However, when the temperature outside dropped and the clouds began gathering (to rain on the processions), I began to feel twitchy. Something was wrong, something important was missing. Usually, just before Easter, I am super-busy melting, stirring, tempering, piping, mixing, (tasting), dipping and doing a whole host of other chocolatiering things relating to making chocolates for friends, family and for selling at craft fairs for Easter.

But not this year.

So today, I dug out my supplies, carefully packed and sealed and brought from England to Valladolid then on to Alcala la Real. Probably needing to be used by now. Unfortunately, I hadn't brought any Easter Egg moulds with me - just some little lolly moulds - owls and koalas. So I made some of those; then I dipped some strawberries; then with the rest of the tempered chocolate, I made a big slab with some crunched up cornflakes, raisins and cranberries and decorated it with white chocolate.

And I feel so much better now.

Hope everyone that usually has chocolates from me has found a suitable alternative this year (- but hope you still think mine are the best!)

WbtA - part 3. Chocolate bliss in Pampaneira

As we were driving between Orgiva and Pitres, we passed one of the more famous villages in the Alpujarras - often described as the prettiest - one of a three that overlook the Porqueira Gorge along with Bubion and Capileira, which are higher up the mountain still.

Clearly it had a more touristy feel to it than Orgiva and Pitres, with shops displaying the locally- made rugs and terracotta, along with t-shirts and Spanish bulls, but in a gentle way. We had promised the children an ice-cream in Orgiva but were met with looks of credulity there - heavens, it was only February! Far too early in the season to be stocking ice-cream! No one had any at all, not even the little supermarket. However, Romy was not going to give up so easily and made a thorough search of the shops when we arrived in Pitres - and finding them all closed only increased her desire to eat ice-cream. She was very hopeful when she saw more encouraging signs in Pampaneira.

Look at the pavement!!

The village was so beautifully clean, with gorgeous pavements. Have you ever stopped to look at pavements? In Huddersfield, they were made from lovely local sandstone and dotted by globs of chewing gum, dropped over the years and trodden flat, almost impossible to remove and now almost impossible to distinguish from their original resting place.
Here in Alcalá la Real, the pavements are tiled in red and white square patterns and are impossibly slippy when it rains - as it is doing just now.

In Pampaneira, the pavements have little shallow channels running down the middle. Bear in mind all the streets were on a steep incline and that above us were the might, snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains, obviously the channels were for the water that must come through the village as the snow starts to melt.

Get ready to jump out of the way of the water, Romy!

As well as finding ice-cream here, we also found the most amazing chocolate shop. The children tried to steer me away from it, thinking I would be upset that someone else had done exactly the thing I wanted to do. But my curiousity was greater than my envy.

A glimpse of something wonderful going on!

I went in - or rather down, because it was below street level - and before long, was chatting to one of the people who worked there, telling him all about my own love of chocolate making.
 










He invited me into the workshop to have a closer look at everything and it was all I could do to stop myself rolling up my sleeves and getting stuck in! (I did ask if I could work there but they had enough people already...)

And the smell was delicious. And all those lovely bars of different flavoured chocolate, all stacked up on shelves - that was when the envy hit a bit, I confess. Ah well, it was food for thought.

Whatever else Pampaneira has to offer, for me, it was one of the most lovely chocolate shops I have ever had the pleasure to visit - not for its sophisticated creations because there were few of those, but for its attention to flavour and quality and its willingness to let the passers by see how it was done.